Categorical Variables for Whom?

STAT 313

Suppose Cal Poly is interested in summarizing the demographics of their undergraduate students. They have designed the following question asking about student’s gender identity:

What is your gender identity?

Male, Female, Other


Who benefits from these options?

Who suffers from these options?

Data Feminism

  • Data science by whom?

  • Data science for whom?

  • Data sets about whom?

  • Data science with whose values?

Rethink binaries

How would you redesign the survey question about student’s gender identity?

Challenge power

An aura objectivity

“We focus on four conventions which imbue visualizations with a sense of objectivity, transparency and facticity. These include: (a) two-dimensional viewpoints, (b) clean layouts, (c) geometric shapes and lines, (d) the inclusion of data sources.”

The work that visualization communications do

Elevate emotion

https://guns.periscopic.com/